


Can't Help Falling In Love With You

by chartreuseClock



Category: Carry On - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: AU, Character Death Mentioned, I might make this into an actual series if people are interested, M/M, Romance, Songfic, a pinch of fate?, drabble?, implied suicidal heroism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 11:44:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5664913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chartreuseClock/pseuds/chartreuseClock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Falling in love has made us into fools.</p><p> </p><p>----------------<br/>(A songfic inspired by the song 'Can't Help Falling In Love With You'.)<br/>This is in AU context where magicians can only use large scale magic when they are with a partner that matches with their magical frequency perfectly. I was planning on writing a fic for it but the songfic idea seemed like a better chance to dip my toes into the water first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't Help Falling In Love With You

**Author's Note:**

> I saw that cool Extra gum commercial with Haley Reinhart covering for 'Can't Help Falling In Love With You' and got really inspired to write a song fic. I'm not even sure how song fics are supposed to be written but I hope I did alright on my first try!
> 
> The AU I was slowly creating for this story was that individual magicians can use small scale magic of their own power on their own, but to use bigger magic they need to resonate with a partner (Consort in this AU) for a larger power margin.  
> Simon can give anyone magic by force, but he couldn't find someone that pairs with him.  
> Coincidentally, Baz hadn't been able to find a partner either.
> 
> I altered the purpose of the Crucible in this AU, so instead of sorting a roommate, it's sorting for matching Consort pairs for those that couldn't find a magician partner on their own. 
> 
> I also changed the Mage's and the Insidious Humdrum's roles in this fic but it's not going to be revealed unless I actually get to writing the fic.

 

*** * ***

It’s only expected, they had always told me.

My magic isn’t anything like what the world has ever seen. It made sense that no magician could match with me. I can give and give, pulling drops of what felt like mere stardust from the seemingly infinite fission of raw power from within me, and it hurts them. They can take it, everyone can take it, but it hurts them so much they don’t want to.

 

Penny told me once, after another failure -and we had wore ourselves stupidly tired late into the night- that my magic felt like an electrocution. Everyone conducts, but they couldn’t receive my powers. I’m one of a kind, she said, and I know she was trying to comfort me. We had been hoping that with our personality compatibility, we would work out, but we didn’t. It hadn’t worked with Penny, and it hadn’t worked with Agatha. 

No one can contain my power, and I can’t take theirs.

 

“You don’t need a Consort, Simon. You’re already the most powerful mage ever,” Penny had said, but she still helped me get ready for the Crucible drawings. I know she knows what I’m thinking. I don’t believe her.    
It’s a slim, tiny chance, but I just want what she and Micah have. I just want what all the pairs of magicians we have at Watford already obtained. I don’t care if my partner is weak, or if I’m not really much good with spells to be a good partner. I just wanted…

 

… to  _ belong _ , I guess.

I don’t know what I’m hoping of at this rate, but I’m willing to take  _ anyone _ , and the Crucible is my last straw.

 

_ Wise men say _

_ Only fools rush in _

_ But I can't help falling in love with you _

_ Shall I stay _

_ Would it be a sin _

_ If I can't help falling in love with you _

 

He is so bright. It hurts to look at him.

It’s unfair, really. How was I ever supposed to get the upperhand when it comes to Simon Snow?

 

The Fates are cruel, and they enjoy the miserable comedy that is my life. I don’t care if I sound like a melodramatic git, because it’s  _ true _ . It just isn’t fair. It’s Snow. Snow, with his ridiculous sunbeam smiles and curls sculpted from warmed bronze in the summer light. Snow, with the green fire that dances like life itself in those blue, blue eyes. He trails campfire and brimstone in his wake, the tendrils of smoke will be my noose one day. I just know it. Of all the magicians in the entire realm I could have magical resonance with, it just  _ had _ to be Snow.   
  
Simon Snow. The single mage in the world that I ought to never be permitted to touch, and the Crucible chose him as my Consort. 

 

It isn’t sheer willpower or stubbornness that allowed me to stay immobile against the pull of the Crucible. There is no fighting the tug somewhere between my chest cavity and my stomach, thick with magic, and urgency, and fate. I am just shell shocked. It’s like someone smacked me with a hammer and I’m watching my live in a theater instead of watching everything unfold with my own foul, dead eyes. Some magicians are just meant to be, but not Snow and I. We can’t possibly be allowed. The Crucible must be wrong. 

 

“Oi,” he huffed, wand hand still raised and waiting. I had kept him waiting. “It’s not like I wanted you for a Consort either, Baz, but will you just hurry up and get it over with?” 

Nobody was ever supposed to match with Snow. He is Simon Snow, the  _ unmatchable _ , the most powerful magician that is supposed to walk amongst us. 

 

I do.

The power of green flames surges in me like a particularly violent carbonated beverage when our hands touch at last, and I felt -for the first time- my own magic seep out from my hand towards Snow. The scent of stardust and the unfolding of  something bigger than I can fathom rose within me when I meet his eyes at last. 

 

He is trying not to smile.

I think I’m going to cry.

 

_ Like a river flows _

_ Surely to the sea _

_ Darling so it goes _

_ Some things are meant to be _

_ Take my hand, _

_ Take my whole life too _

_ For I can't help falling in love with you _

 

Baz’s magic smells of the pleasant smell that comes from burning green wood in the forest, like cedar and all that sorts of nicely smelling trees, and it feels like a heartbeat on my tongue. 

 

Out of all the people in Watford, Baz must be the last person on my list of expected Consort candidates. We’ve never gotten along, ever. He hates me, and his family hates the mage. I hate him too, because he’s an arse, plus he seems really keen on trying to kill me. He’s always plotting something, and though I should wonder if Baz had somehow spelled the Crucible into pairing us together just so he can have a go at me, I scrapped that idea pretty quickly. 

 

He might be planning something, and possibly an evil vampire, but I had never been able to taste anyone’s magic like this before. It’s a sweet- bittersweet taste, and it lingers. Baz’s magic lingers like Baz does, always hovering around me when I’m not paying attention.

 

It’s hard to not pay attention now, though. Consorts don’t work like that. I feel his magic so much it’s almost suffocating sometimes, and I imagined it can’t be that pleasant being zapped by my supermagic-whatever either. Still, we could actually work together now. Our magic certainly resonates, and most importantly, my magic doesn’t fry Baz up like it did to everyone else (I was initially disappointed about that). 

 

“Crowley, Snow. You do realize we’re standing right in the way of fire here?” Baz’s voice snapped, and I looked over. Oh. Right. 

Dragon.

“Sorry, I was thinking,” I reply, feeling a little bit bad. Baz has been doing the  **_Ladybird, ladybird_ ** spell on his own, and it was draining him rapidly while I was distracted. The dragon was still there, looking extremely fascinated by Baz. She probably thinks he looks like a particularly crunchy, flammable snack. Baz wouldn’t let me kill it, because it’s apparently  _ endangered _ .

“Astounding. That must be a first.”

 

I roll my eyes and grip his hand, even though he’s being a twat about this. It wasn’t like I was leaving him on his own. Closing my eyes briefly, I imagine myself pushing my magic into him, like we practiced. It’s easier to use my magic when Baz is around. Everything feels more solid. It’s more like ripping a small clay lump out of the source now compared to before, when everything was just intangible gas and fire.    
Baz straightens his back like a revived stalk of reed, and I place a hand there too, just because I can.    
  


“Go on, mate,” I whisper. I don’t know why I am whispering. It feels like something is going to shatter if I spoke too loud. I’m a clumsy person, I know, and this operation seems too delicate to butcher up. I lean in a bit more, just by his ear. “Take all you need.” 

 

_ Like a river flows _

_ Surely to the sea _

_ Darling so it goes _

_ Some things are meant to be _

_ Take my hand, _

_ Take my whole life too _

_ For I can't help falling in love with you _

_ For I can't help falling in love with you _

 

Snow is crazy.

 

The sheer miasma in the air was so heavy it feels like even I could suffocate. The lights are going all over the place, blinking and going out like stars devoured in blackholes. The gate isn’t going to hold, and the thundering sound of everything being ripped apart and spun was deafening-

 

The Mage is dead, but the gate lives.    
The Mage had tried to control it, just as he tried to control Snow, but it never worked. Nothing was ever his to control, and he lost it all like sand through his fingers. And now, his body is stiff, and being dragged in steadily into the gaping maw of nothing. Nothing. 

“You’re insane,” I shout. How long has it been since I raise my voice like this? Certainly never for reasons besides Simon Snow. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”

 

He’s casting **_Only fools rush in_** on himself, and I can feel the thrum of magic vibrating between us. There is no doubt in his spellwork, no hesitation in his eyes. He is ready to face death and walk backwards into the literal gates of hell to stop all of this.  
My heart hurts. 

_ I hurt _ . 

He is thinking of going in there on his own, alone, and that hurts me the most. 

 

“I’m coming with you,” I say, and somehow I found the strength to stand. It’s dizzying to do so. The world spins like it has lost its pivot and everything is losing their sense. The only thing anchoring me is Snow, and his blue, blue eyes.    
“You don’t have to, Baz!” he shouts back, and I wonder how he even heard me in this din.    
The chains are snapping one by one. The books are flying off the shelves completely and being ripped to shreds upon contact with the dark mass emerging from within. I can hear  _ its _ laugh, that sinister, empty laugh.    
  
I think I’m smiling, or maybe I’m crying, and I raise my wand to myself. 

“ **_Only fools rush in!_ ** ” 

Simon's eyes are on me, and only me, and then he squeezes my hand just like that time. The first time we were called,  _ really called _ , together, and everything had been so bright. I am starlights and helpless asteroids propelling straight towards the sun, and I’m perfectly willing. Snow is so bright, and damned as I am, I will not let that light go out because of anything, and certainly not that  _ thing _ threatening to destroy a life I have finally began. 

We kissed. Amidst everything, and I can feel the power pushing and pulling between us until it swells up my heart and lights up everything from inside.

Even if we don’t make it out alive… Aleister Crowley, I’d have lived a charmed life if I got to go with him.

 

A part of a broken pillar flies at us from the force of the all-consuming suction, but the spell around us bounced it off easily. I’m grinning. I feel invincible even though I can taste the end.    
**_Only fools rush in_ ** , a spell that enhances the powers of the ones using it based on the strength of the love they held, for the ones they’re fighting for.

 

And the effect resonates for magicians who use it together. As fools in love.

 

*** * ***

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Let me know in the comments if I should expand this into a full fic, please!


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